


Our Halloweens

by C-chan (1001paperboxes)



Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-28
Updated: 2014-10-28
Packaged: 2018-02-22 22:52:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,379
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2524640
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/1001paperboxes/pseuds/C-chan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is how Marius Pontmercy, aged 18, finds himself dressing up for Halloween for the first time ever.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Our Halloweens

**Author's Note:**

  * For [](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts).



> I was able to combine a few of the requested prompts into this fic; I hope that the end result is enjoyable. Have a very wonderful Halloween!

“What? Never?!” Courfeyrac asks, eyes wide as he stares at his dormmate.

“Not once,” Marius agrees. “My grandfather….” 

“No, say no more. I don’t want to hear it,” Courfeyrac decides. “All that matters is one thing: you, my friend, are going trick-or-treating this year.”

~

Sometimes he’d stare at the displays, at the costumes of heroes and villains, princesses and dragons, bright coloured characters and mythical creatures of all descriptions. He wanted to try them all on, see what it was like to have wings, or long blond hair, or to be a cloaked figure of shadow. But then Tante Gillenormand would tisk and cluck, and Grandpère would say how the only costume worth seeing involved bunny ears, and on they’d go to the furniture store or a suit fitting, or whatever other outing they were on that day.

 ~

“No.” 

“No?”

“No,” Courfeyrac repeats.

“But I thought we were dressing up,” Marius points out, confused. “Aren’t these-“

“Store-bought costumes are poorly constructed, overpriced, and generally very limiting in their options. I mean, yes; I realize that there are thousands of costumes available, but even _I_ get bored of seeing the same large extent of cleavage and short skirt on female costumes,” Courfeyrac explains, “and that’s without getting Prouvaire and Feuilly… or really any of our friends tag-teaming on the commodification and sexualisation of women and its implications.”

“But surely it wouldn’t hurt to try…?”

Courfeyrac sighs dramatically, but offers Marius a smile. “If it means that much to you, then sure. Grab a handful, at least it might give us some ideas.”

~

“Is that from something?”

“The Phantom of the Opera,” Courfeyrac explained. “Masquerade scene, of course.”

(It had taken him a while to figure out precisely what to wear. Halloween was a time for flamboyance, and even if he’d always been on the conservative side of flashy – clothes cut to please and maybe turn the eye, colours chosen to be bright yet appealing and fit smartly together – it was fun to put together an unforgettable costume each year.

(Still, his mind kept going back to the same outfit. It would be a hell of a challenge to pull off, and might even rub one or two people the wrong way, especially if the conversation he kept on hearing in his head ever managed to come to life.

(By the time he actually put it together, it was the next year’s Halloween. Sourcing the material had taken a good chunk of that alone, as there were parts that would not look the same if thrifted, and he’d known it. But then it was time to party, and he’d never felt more proud of himself, and he’d been humming a certain song all night.)

“Why half and half, though?”

“Because isn’t it great to be bi?”

~

“I was thinking... could we invite Cosette too?” Marius asks, pages of language homework surrounding him on his single bed.

“That would be nice,” Courfeyrac agrees. “She’s sweet. Invite her to what though?”

“Our. Um. Our Halloween thing?”

“Oh that will be perfect!”

~

Cosette went through a chocolate spell when she and Papa were in the poor, old apartment. It took only their first meal in a restaurant together, where the children’s menu had come with chocolate chip cookies, for her to be hooked. There was chocolate in her breakfast, chocolate milk at lunch, small squares served at dinner and syrup drizzled over ice cream. More than once she had to carefully wipe Catherine’s face, having wanted to share her favourite treat with her closest friend.

(She remembered her mother feeding her chocolate once, though she was very little at the time. The memory was muddled: a voice, a laugh, a song, and the bittersweet taste. Her foster parents never let her have any, so it was a very sacred memory and a very special treat.)

~

“They let me go out for a few years, when I was very little,” Cosette muses, “but I wasn’t allowed any of the candy. And then I think I manned the door after that. And then there were parties at the boarding school – little affairs with chocolate pumpkins and saints or angels – they weren’t fond of ghosts you see, but they found some equivalents. They couldn’t let a gaggle of girls go around trick or treating – we hardly left the walls, after all, but it was still a good time.

“And then, well, Papa has always been wary about my being out alone. Which I understand, but it would be fun to do something a little more bold, you know?”

“So you’re up for it?” Courfeyrac guesses.

“Of course!” she agrees, “it sounds exciting!”

~

There had always been excitement when it came to dressing up in the de Courfeyrac household. The family was highly theatrical, and all six children seemed to have a flair for turning tablecloths into robes and hand-me-downs into exotic pieces, and a cheerful, exuberant enjoyment in seeing where each piece could take them. Boys and girls alike had learned to sew and apply makeup, whether for their home productions or for amateur theatrics, and they enjoyed trying to outdo each other in their creations.

Once, when he was very little, his two older sisters had decided to dress him up as a doll – whether to try to sneak him into their room or to simply have fun he can no longer remember. However, looking at pictures, even he has to admit he looks as though he had as much right to be in their toy chest as any of the plastic, plush, or china creations surrounding him.

Halloween was just one more opportunity for them to show off, whether individually or collectively. Sometimes they did their own things, but sometimes they pooled their resources to pull off some fun team ideas: there was a lot that could be done with six, after all. (They had done a chess set once. He had been the rook, and they had made him the most wondrous hat!) Either way, there was always talk in the schoolyard of what the de Courfeyracs would be doing for Halloween each October, and it made young Courfeyrac beam with pride.

~

“We should do matching outfits,” Courfeyrac decides that night, as Marius is climbing into bed.

“But you’ll definitely do it better,” Marius points out, “no matter what we--”

“Not the same outfit,” Courfeyrac explains, “things that fit together. All three of us. And you know I’m glad to help make all of them.”

“Okay,” Marius warily agrees, “but what comes well in threes?”

~

One year, Cosette had pretended that she, Éponine, and Azelma were being Cinderella and her two ugly stepsisters for Halloween. She even chose a particularly drab and threadbare outfit from her very picked through wardrobe to wear that day, appeasing herself with the illusion.

Of course, she never told anyone this, for fear of being beaten.

~

“Are you sure this is all you need?” Marius asks, looking at the odd collection of things piled on his dormmate’s bed: dress shirts and slacks, felt, hot glue and embroidery floss, and few other things sticking out here and there between swaths of dark material. 

“It is,” Courfeyrac insists. “You worry about that German of yours, you cunning linguist you.”

Marius blushes, as he always does at that particular epithet, and obediently does just that as Courfeyrac, humming, sets to work.

~

He’d never even put on clothes from Tante Gillenormand or Grandpère’s wardrobes. Their bedroom doors were always locked when he was quite young, and it was a general rule that bedrooms were off-limits as he grew older. Like all rules in the Gillenormand household, it was meant to be strictly observed.

 ~

This is how Marius Pontmercy, aged 18, finds himself flitting from dorm to dorm, collecting candy while dressed as Ron Weasley, together with Hermione Granger and Harry Potter.

There are parties afterwards, but Harry deems there to be more important matters at hand (“You’ve never seen the Great Pumpkin? Either of you? The Nightmare Before Christmas? No, I believe you, but we are having a _movie night_ tonight!”).

Between eating too much candy, and being together with his two favourite people in the world, Marius isn’t sure he could imagine any better first Halloween, even if it is rather late.

**Author's Note:**

> The costumes of Courfeyrac's past are actually both outfits that the author may wish to do someday.
> 
> The half-man, half-woman outfit is indeed from the Phantom of the Opera's Masquerade scene, and looks like [this](http://37.media.tumblr.com/71968ab41e8d33695c80836d61c18ed5/tumblr_mk7b1r54Nd1s4crs9o1_500.jpg).
> 
> The de Courfeyracs' chess set is based on [this AMAZING version of the musical Chess](http://youtu.be/U6_wLhUaJWw). The rooks, and all the chess pieces, indeed have [amazing costumes](http://thewritersideoflife.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/chess-musicians-on-stage1.jpg).


End file.
